talking points Tighten Your Belts

Here's what they were saying about the current state of golf development at KPMG's Golf Business Forum in Belek, Turkey:

Andrea Sartori, the head of KPMG's Golf Advisory Practice -- "It is our opinion that it will take some time for the golf industry to recover. Many developments have stopped, been delayed, or even canceled due to the global economic crisis, and this is being driven by a lack of confidence, liquidity in the market, and a change in consumer demand."

Giovanni Gregoratti, director of Citigroup's real estate investment banking in Europe -- "It has been a tough couple of years for real estate finance.... Golf, in particular, has been hit badly, and it may take longer than most industries to return to where it was."

Greg Norman, "signature" golf designer -- "The era of unlimited budgets for golf developments, as we experienced in the 1980s and 1990s, are gone. I've told people in countries such as China that we don't want to repeat the mistakes of the past, because that has a lot to do with the situation we are in now."